You belong in a zoo.....

Look carefully. See the elephant?

Because this entire Summer has been based on all the things that go with moving, we haven't had a lot of fun. So when we had our first school holiday, my sister in law Kristin and I took the children to the Atlanta Zoo along with the other million people who had the same idea!Kristin, Cooper and Porter on the train

Climb every mountain.....

Discovering Dunkin Donuts

The kids were seeming kind of down after a long week at school so I decided they needed a pick me up. I started thinking about things we could do and realized they'd never been to Dunkin Donuts in Georgia! Anyway, I loaded them up and off we went! Not that it was a religious experience by any means, but, you would have thought we'd gone to heaven!
Caroline Consuming a Chocolate Crueller

Garrett hits the big "8"!

So, for the first time since turning one year old, Garrett celebrated his (8th) birthday in the states. Bill was able to fly down for a quiet celebration which included presents, an outing to "The Simpsons" movie and a dinner with our entire family including his Grandparents, cousins and his Uncle Ben and Aunt Kristin. As hard as it is dealing with so many changes in our life, having the family connection on a daily basis again means SO much to us!

Pony Club Farewells

So for our last ta-daa before Anita and I move away, we painted the leopard jump that I'd been promising for more than a year. This being a typical pony club meeting, we had SO MUCH FUN! Many hugs and few tears completed this bittersweet au revoir with promises to get together again soon.

Melissa, Anita and myself; note the beautiful jump standard behind us


Our favorite instructor, Miss Melissa

Caroline and Leica sitting in a tree.......

Pony Club Power!

Sundown at Rainbow Beach

Our good friends Jim and Kelly invited us to meet them for a sunset dinner at Rainbow Beach tonight. It was lots of fun because we got to see Miss Vicki and Lance and Eileen and their beautiful baby Gwen....Caroline, Emmy and Garrett got to play with Jim's kids Courtney and Justin and eveyone had a blast!

Garrett and Justin exploring the tide pools

Our good friend Eileen and Miss Gwen

Caroline and Courtney doing the "Rock Hop".....

It's so hard to say goodbye.....

So we're down to the barrel now and have begun our final get togethers with island friends and families. It's so hard to say goodbye to these people! They have made our lives here on St. Croix so rich and full. I'll be adding photos as I take them over the next ten days.

Here's Caroline and Emmy with Emily

Garrett and Andrew have been friends since they were babies!

Emmy and Kristina sharing a last playdate......I KNOW we'll see you guys again!
Save the last dance for me.....

AZ Academy's End of Year Show.....

Wow I can't believe that this school year is over! Like all of our years, it's been quite eventful! The school year ended with the annual end of year show composed of a series of short plays and skits.

Here's Garrett and his class singing the national anthem!

As for Emmy, she did a wonderful job as a fairy in her play "A Dragon in the Mix"

And to finish the end of year show, Caroline was VERY dramatic as Snow White in

"The Happily Ever After"

As always, the end of year show was a fun night to see all of AZ's talented students. It was rather bittersweet for me, as I knew it would likely be the last show we, the Corders would attend on St. Croix. During the show, AZ's director (my boss and friend) gave out teacher and volunteer awards. I was amazed and touched to recieve an award for my art program! Like I said, truly a bittersweet night. We've been so lucky in finding friends and family on St. Croix, I really can't believe it's time for us to move on.